


What could have been

by kosmo-not (kk_writer)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Post Season 7, be warned, canon compliant through s7, not sure if i'll get them together yet, will leave it open to interpretation either way though, written for sheith angst week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 04:02:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15855816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kk_writer/pseuds/kosmo-not
Summary: IN THE WORKS TRY BACK LATERI'm changing it from a maybe-Sheith to a definitely-Sheith but I won't have time to finish this for a while





	What could have been

**Author's Note:**

> I remember reading the ask that someone sent in for "Almost" to be considered as an angst prompt in the sense of almost getting to be together and it was so sad and lovely and now here we are. Spoilers at the end if you're like me and want to know exactly what you're getting into :D

Keith knows by now not to expect much from people. Through no fault of their own, the people in his life tend to let him down. He's been breaking down those walls, learning how to be part of a team. It's hard. Painful, at times. Definitely worthwhile. 

Keith trusts his team. Which is more than he'd planned for. 

But the only person he thought would never let him down? That he trusted implicitly? Was Shiro. 

Sure, Keith knew about Shiro's illness. And he knew that Shiro planned to burn brightly until he started to fade. Until he succumbed to the degenerative disease haunting his ambitions. 

Keith had never accepted that for one second. 

Shiro was always going to be fine. 

And then the clone transfer worked. 

In fleeting moments, when they were fighting the Galra, saving the Earth from invasion, fighting Sendak once again - Keith would hear Shiro's voice over the intercoms and he would just know - Shiro would be okay, now. 

Not that Keith would ever stop keeping an eye on him. 

Sometimes Shiro just didn't know when to quit. 

But now, Shiro could be the person he'd always wanted to be. Without anything holding him back. 

Shiro had found his purpose when he was young. It was out of necessity. He'd created his own single-minded focus - to become the best, the youngest, the first at everything the Garrison had to offer. Shiro learned to be a fighter, and it pushed him through imprisonment, through war, even through death. 

Keith had always admired, and envied, that focus. He'd been fighting for a long time, too. But never with a goal in mind. 

Shiro helped him find some of that, of course. He'd taught Keith how to work toward something, how to use his talent and strength for good. 

Unfortunately, they didn't always share the same goals. 

Keith would drop everything for Shiro in a heartbeat. Would ignore Shiro's own wishes to keep him happy and safe. 

Keith had stopped questioning that impulse long ago. 

Even though he'd had Shiro for a long time, though, Keith had always felt like something was missing. Like he couldn't quite be the person Shiro needed him to be. He knew he had a long way to go, in terms of reining in his temper, working well with a team.

He'd found that missing piece when he met Krolia. Family. They were so similar, in so many ways, that Keith found himself feeling - almost relieved. Like he'd been stumbling blindly, scraping against the sharp edges of a world where he didn't quite fit. He'd pushed people away, intentionally or otherwise. He'd been so angry at the world. Only one person had seen him in that unfinished state and taken him as he was. Had refused to give up. 

Shiro had fought for him. And now - now, Keith was enough of his own person to fight for Shiro, too. (To fight for more, finally. To acknowledge the reason Keith had come so far. The reason he stopped fighting against the world and starting fighting _for_ something. For someone.) 

When Shrio didn't come to the hospital to visit any of them, Keith decided to find out why. 

He regretted that decision almost right away. 

A group of fighter class pilots, they said. Thought to be shot down in battle, one of the early conflicts between Earth and the Galra. Many had died, but a few had survived the crash. They'd been taken to a special labor camp set up as a Galra rehabilitation facility. Which meant experimentation. Dismemberment. Tech implants and robotic limbs. 

Where most of the universe would see injured soldiers, the Galra saw opportunities. 

They'd had more than a year and access to resources being mined from Earth itself to make new and improved cybernetic limbs, eyes, even internal organs. Some designed, as they now knew, to tap into their users' nervous systems and potentially control thought and behavior. 

Earth's strongest, bravest, and brightest, turned into weapons, if they succeeded. And not just weapons in the traditional sense - psychological weapons. Friends, flight partners, and classmates, to be used to fight whoever remained at the Garrison. 

A new kind of warfare that Keith knew all about. 

Keith wasn't the only one who wanted answers. Allura, freshly released from her stint in the hospital as well, and vouched for by Shiro, found her way into the quarantine where the detainees were being kept. 

Keith waited at her Garrison-assigned living quarters that day until she came back, ashen-faced, and without questioning it, led Keith in. 

"I've called some of the others," she said, grabbing a bag of personal belongings that had been delivered that afternoon and setting it on the couch. "Coran and Pidge should be here shortly."

Hunk and Lance, they knew, were spending time with their families. Keith figured she hadn't even called them for this. 

Lance showed up anyway. Along with Hunk, and Romelle, and the mice. 

"We couldn't just let you two celebrate your first days of freedom without us!" Lance said, carrying in an armload of pizzas. 

"Waaaaait a minute, you seem too serious for people who just got released after weeks of being stuck in a hospital bed. I would know." He hesitated at the table where Keith and Allura had been sitting, not talking for the last ten minutes. 

"I'm afraid we have some news. And a task," Allura said, getting up to greet the mice while Lance headed over to the kitchen and started digging for plates. 

"Awwh, man! Can't we just have one night - " 

"I'm afraid not," Allura said. "Although whatever you brought smells..." she opened one of the boxes. "...Interesting. What is this?"

"This, my lovely lady," Lance said, dancing back over to the table with plates in hand, "is called _pizza_. I got you a gross vegetarian one because I know you Alteans seem happy subsisting entirely on food goo, which is entirely unacceptable, I might add, but then I wasn't sure if that was because you're like opposed to eating meat or what. And they only had a few kinds of toppings anyway, supply chains are still kinda messed up..." 

He was interrupted by a squeal of delight from Romelle, who had already taken an enormous bite out of the greasiest of the pizzas and now looked like a heart-eyed cartoon character. 

"MMMgghhhh this is *delightful*!" 

Pidge and Coran had arrived by then, and everyone settled into the rhythm of a meal with their team, as if they were back at the castle again. Some were more enthusiastic than others, and conversations soon died off as Lance called their attentions to why they'd actually gathered. 

"So, princess, give us the scoop," he said. "What's the latest big bad we need to fight."

"It's nothing in particular," Allura answered. "More like - a need for information. And some assistance, if any of us is willing to volunteer."

She glanced over at Keith, who'd been sitting quietly at the table, picking at his slice of pizza more than eating it.

"We're in a unique position to help, because we have in the past come up against a mind-controlled Galra clone." She paused and looked around the room. "As we know, the clone of our friend Shiro was remotely controlled by the witch Hagar using a mind link and quintessence-powered magic. It now appears, in our time away, that the Galra have continued her work. They are now able to infuse any Galran implant with that same mind-control technology."

Pidge, who'd been wide-eyed at this announcement, leaned forward. "Wait, so you're saying that the Galra can implement *mind control* on *anyone* through cybernetic enhancements now?"

"We're not entirely sure," Allura replied.

"Whoa whoa whoa, whaaat we talking about here? Who's being controlled?" Hunk said.

"Yes, I should have mentioned, apologies," Allura answered. She looked down. Paused. 

Keith jumped in. "They found a bunch of Garrison pilots. Shot down in the first battle with the Galra. Everyone thought they were dead. They were captured."

"So you're saying...the Galra imprisoned a bunch of injured, fighter-class Garrison pilots, and experimented on them? Used them for mind control? ...Were they going to use them against us?" Hunk said.

"That does seem to have been the plan, yes," Allura said. 

Everyone was silent for a moment while that sunk in. 

"They're being held in quarantine at the moment," Allura said. "And they need our help. Coran, Pidge, Hunk, in addition to me, you all have the most experience in dealing with Galra tech and quintessence. Keith..."

Keith could feel his nerves on edge as she looked over at him. 

Her voice changed to a softer tone. "They want to know how you broke Hagar's mind control. I assumed it was when you severed the clone's - "

"Shiro's," Keith interjected.

" - when you removed his Galra-implanted arm." 

Keith realized he was glaring daggers at Allura, and forced himself to calm down. "Yeah. That's how it happened."

Allura nodded. "That will be useful information. They might be able to remove many of the implants. I'll work with Earth engineers and medical staff, and you two, Hunk, and Pidge, if you're willing, to design new ones. We will need to find a power source that doesn't allow for outside control. Coran, we could use your help with the tech, as well."

"There may be others..." she paused. "There may be others who would not survive the removal of their implants. We'll need to keep them locked down and find some way to sever any potential link." 

Allura glanced away for a moment, clearly recalling what she'd witnessed at the quarantine that day.

Lance, who was sitting near her at the table, leaned over and put a hand on her arm. 

"We're here for you, Allura. Whatever you need."

The others nodded. 

Keith got up from the table and walked out to the balcony. 

They were small, the living quarters they'd each been assigned. They came with one or two beds pushed to either side of a wall on the opposite end from the kitchen, with the table and couch in the middle and a holoscreen for watching TV. And a bathroom, of course. Not much. But more than they'd had in months. Keith knew he had one waiting for him, and he pictured moving his mattress out to the deck to sleep under the stars. Like he'd done with Shiro all those years ago - long weekends riding their hoverbikes to the middle of the desert, where the stars were the brightest. They'd pack food and sleeping bags and spend the whole weekend racing around the desert during the day and naming constellations at night. Well, Shiro named constellations. Keith would always pretend like he didn't remember, and Shiro would scoot his sleeping bag closer and angle his arm so he could point out the stars. Some nights, they brought a telescope and looked for distant galaxies. Always dreaming of the stars, his Shiro. If Shiro had ever been his to begin with. (Shiro had never been his, he thought. Not really.)

Allura followed him out after a while and took up a similar position, arms crossed over the railing, looking up at the sky.

"It always feels surreal," she said. "Spending time on an actual planet, not flying through space on a ship. Feels like we're farther away from everything, somehow."

Keith didn't reply. 

Allura turned to him. "Keith, there's more I've been meaning to tell you," she said. And Keith knew, in that moment. It wasn't like He'd been wondering, but now he knew. 

"There's someone there - who took some of the worst of it. Apparently he had a prior connection with Shiro. They found that out and used it against him. His name is - "

"Adam." 

" - Adam. Shiro was there, too. He's been spending all his time back and forth between the quarantine and Garrison meeting rooms. They're still bringing people in, figuring out where they were all kept. There could be a place for you, to help, but - "

"But we need to start gathering intel," he finished. 

There'd been a big meeting in his hospital room, several days ago. The Blades (his mom and Kolivan), Allura, several of the Garrison higher-ups, Sam, Pidge. They'd made a plan for several missions to known Galra strongholds to determine the extent of their empire, to find allies, and to see what they'd been doing for the last several months. 

Keith had been counting on going out with Voltron, for some of those missions, with the whole team. Maybe with Atlas, and maybe with Shiro, if he decided to spend more time in space. (Where he always seemed to want to be.)

That wouldn't be happening now. Pidge, Hunk, the others - they'd stay behind and gather their own intel. Intel about how the Galra's cybernetic weaponry and quintessence manipulation had advanced. The idea of those Garrison fighters being used as weapons, even as tools for Galra spies - that had to be a priority for now, for most of his team. Maybe Lance would come with him on their intel-gathering mission in space. Maybe he'd want to stay with his family. Maybe they could find a way to do both. And Keith could do something else he'd planned with Krolia - visit his dad in the cemetery. 

Allura, next to him, had gone back to stargazing. 

"Pidge and her mother are already working on a stationary teleduv," she said. "We should be able to send you out soon."

Keith nodded, and then realized it was too dark for her to see. "Good."

"You should stop by the quarantine unit. You won't have to go all the way in - there are medical supply tents and common areas. ...I know Shiro would be glad to see you."

Keith answered when he could. "Yeah. I can do that."

Allura stood with him until Lance opened the door and suddenly the quiet night was filled with the sound of his teammates' chatter. 

"Hey! What are you two doing out here that's taking so long? Man, it's freezing!" 

"It is a little chilly," Allura agreed, and went back inside. 

Keith stayed, lost in thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Adam lives. He's in bad shape. Keith is all like, maybe I can be with Shiro now that he's safe and happy and we're close to defeating the Galra. And then they find Adam. And then Keith leaves Earth. So. Lots of pining. And a surprising amount of plot. This is not what I had planned. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I have ideas for future chapters, but nothing written yet. Also, I've never tackled a multi-chapter fic - I always figured if I did I'd have a bunch of it written in advance. So I can't really give any timelines, sorry. Plus side, I've been wanting to explore this storyline for a while now, so it might just happen like right away. ^^ Concrit welcome! And let me know if I have spelling mistakes! I am totally cool with that


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